[Tuisonderwys] FW: Fw: Sunday Times HE article

Wed, 23 Apr 2003 11:39:23 +0200

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Aangehegte ontvang van die Nederlandse [thuisonderwijs]-poslys

Leendert van Oostrum
Pestalozzi Trust
Tel:    +27 12 330 1337
Faks: +27 12 331 1018
www.pestalozzi.org

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Subject: [thuisonderwijs] Fw: Sunday Times HE article
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 10:55:53 +0200
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mooi artikel van de UK-HOME-ED list

Sent: zondag 20 april 2003 22:08
Subject: Re: Sunday Times HE article

> The Sunday Times - Review
>  April 20, 2003
>
> Education: Amazing what you learn in a kitchen
> Home-educated children, far from being in the academic slow lane, are
> showing their paces when they hit higher education, reports Beatrice
Newlsy
>
>
>
> Nineteen-year-old Louis Barton is a model first-year student at London
> University. With two As and a B in music, maths and film studies A-levels,
> he applied to study philosophy and started reading volumes before the
first
> term began. He often stays for group discussions after class and was
> recently the only student out of 80 to be specially commended.
> He plays the drums in a hip-hop band, speaks Japanese, enjoys martial arts
> and fencing. But Louis differs from his college mates in one respect. He
was
> educated at home.
>
> Home education is legal. Any parent who takes their child out of school
> simply has to notify the head. There is no law dictating how parents
should
> educate their children at home, just that they should be educated to their
> age ability. In theory families are inspected once a year; in practice
they
> are often left to their own devices.
>
> Parents often worry that children will suffer academically and socially
> without traditional schooling, but they may actually be at an advantage.
> Research by Paula Rothermel at Durham University shows that, while the
> national curriculum is followed by only 14% of home-educating families
(with
> 58% not using it at all and 28% referring to it only occasionally), this
> doesn't stop home-educated children achieving academically.
>
> Rothermel questioned 1,000 home-schooled families across Britain and found
> that 65% of the four-year-olds scored 75% or more in baseline numeracy and
> literacy tests compared with just 5.1% of state-educated children. Of the
> four to 11-year-olds, home-educated children were progressing more
> positively in developmental and academic terms than their school
> counterparts. Among older children, too, an impressive 82.3% of
10-year-olds
> fell into the top band for literacy.
>
> Hes Fes, the Home Educators Seaside Festival which takes place each May,
> attracted 1,257 people last year, or 300 families, up from 55 people when
it
> started in 1998. It is not known exactly how many children are being
> educated at home (they are not required to be counted) but estimates stand
> at 150,000 children. This represents 1% of those at compulsory-education
> age. They come from around 25,000 families, of varying beliefs and
> backgrounds. Nearly a quarter of parents who home-educate have a teaching
> background.
>
> As Rothermel explains: "Some are authoritarian, some libertarian, and they
> home-educate for various reasons. Some don't like the drugs at schools;
> others have children who have been bullied. All believe they can do a
better
> job at home."
>
> Louis Barton was five years old, and his younger sister Lily just born,
when
> their mother decided on home education after failing to find a suitable
> local London school. Home schooling was quite an undertaking for Leslie,
who
> was a single mother. She rented out three rooms at the top of her house in
> Queen's Park, northwest London, and invested in the textbooks for Louis's
> age range.
>
> She knew that school remained an option if teaching Louis at home didn't
> work out, but she still had to force herself to stay calm when the schools
> went back. "We went to the park and did bark rubbings with charcoal. Then
we
> met some friends before going home to make a cake. By the end of the day I
> realised that without thinking we'd done maths, biology and art as well as
> some socialising."
>
> Leslie planned to teach three subjects a morning. But she quickly found
> Louis more receptive when the days were fluid, the learning
> "project-orientated". "He loved gorillas so we went to the zoo every day
to
> watch their behaviour and draw them. We looked them up in the library, and
> cut out articles for his gorilla book. We even did fundraising for the
> mountain gorillas through jumble sales.
>
> "And this is how it worked for both children. We picked something that we
> loved and investigated it. If we found ourselves digging worms in the
> garden, we counted the rings, and looked worms up in a book. If a tap
leaked
> in the bathroom, we took it apart to work out why. Nothing had to be
> categorised by subject."
>
> Leslie organised a history group, believing that children benefit from
> working together. A group of home-educated children came to the Barton
house
> weekly for non-compulsory exploration of Greek history (from writing Greek
> tragedies to making Greek salad), Christopher Columbus (making an
> animation), and architecture (including seeing how flying buttresses work
by
> leaning five children against each other).
>
> By the time Louis was nine the group had outgrown Leslie's kitchen and was
> moved to a community centre. Relaunched as the Otherwise Club, it was soon
> available three days a week, offering pottery, drama and other options.
>
> "The parents come with their children, nobody has overall control," says
> Leslie. "And we pay school prices for people to come and give workshops.
> There's an owl man, a police-dog trainer and others. And we have a choir
and
> do country dancing."
>
> Today, with 60 families, including 100 children, the club's growing
> membership shows increasing awareness of home education as an option. The
> organiser of Hes Fes, Andy Blewett, adds that families are increasingly
> dealing with the potential isolation issue by banding together. "There
were
> five groups like the Otherwise Club in London six years ago. Now there are
> over 30."
>
> Leslie herself became increasingly radical, leaving the children to choose
> what they want to learn. "I'll say, 'look, here are the Normans!' or, 'how
> about the Aztec exhibition?' But beyond that they teach themselves.
> Everything is their choice. Where they can't teach themselves, I find
> teachers. Once I advertised for a college student to teach science for two
> hours a week for free. They loved it."
>
> Louis had grade eight in violin by the age of 14. And when his interest in
> sciences took him to some Royal Institution lectures, he attended those
> aimed at children four years his senior. Meanwhile Lily, 14, has announced
> that this year she would like to learn French, guitar, dancing and steel
> drums, besides following her interests in Latin, history, poetry and
> literature. She has applied for the Guildhall's Saturday music school and
> recently took an audition for the National Youth Theatre.
>
> It was Louis himself who chose to attend Southgate College at A-level.
> "Music was more easily studied within the system and it would have been
> difficult for me to carry on home education at this stage in life. Now I
> need university-level teaching, though I have doubts about the value of
> lectures themselves," he says.
>
> Since entering the education system Louis has assimilated easily. "I think
> home ed was probably a better preparation for university, philosophy and
> life, than school. It helped me to become the kind of person who can take
> advantage of what university has to offer. I feel quite at home here."

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